In the International Spotlight...Myanmar Cricket

The Myanmar cricket team is the team that represents the country of Myanmar aka Burma in international cricket matches. Cricket in Myanmar dates back to when Burma was a province of British India. The British brought the game there, as they did to the rest of India, and the game progressed to the level where the Marylebone Cricket Club played two two-day first class matches there on a tour to India in 1926/1927. The first of these was played at the Gymkhana ground in Rangoon against a Rangoon Gymkhana team. That game was drawn with the MCC on top after forcing the home side to follow-on. The second game was against the Burma team themselves at the BAA Ground, also in Rangoon. The MCC won this game restricting Burma to low scores in both their innings, and only having to chase 7 runs to win in their second innings. This remains the country's only first class game.

Cricket remained very much a minority sport in Myanmar, and was nowhere to be seen between 1988 and 1995. In 2002 the game was seeing a resurgence, with a seven team league organised by former Bengal first class player Naresh Kumar, with some former first class players taking part in games attended by around 250 people. Cricket was also featured on TV news reports. The Myanmar Cricket Federation received a visit from the ICC in 2004 and became an affiliate member of the organisation in 2006. The game is currently played primarily by ex-pats, but the game has been introduced into schools.

Just two months after gaining ICC membership, Myanmar headed to Malaysia to take part in the ACC Trophy for the first time. They did not have the best of experiences, with a series of heavy defeats, details of which follow:

16 August: Lost to Kuwait by nine wickets. Kuwait chased a target of 134 in just ten overs.

17 August: Lost to Hong Kong by 422 runs. Myanmar scored just 20 when they batted.

19 August: Lost to Bhutan by nine wickets. Bhutan, who had also received heavy defeats in their previous games, chased a target of 77 inside seven overs.

The nadir of their tournament came against Nepal, who eventually finished in fourth place in the tournament. Myanmar were bowled out for just 10 runs, with no batsman scoring more than a single and half the total being made up of extras. The Nepali reply started with three runs off the first ball, followed by three wide deliveries that went for five runs and another three runs from the second legitimate delivery. Nepal therefore reached their target in just two legitimate deliveries. Some called it the greatest mismatch in the history of international cricket.

Myanmar should be protected from such vast mismatches in the near future as the ACC Trophy is being split into two divisions, with Myanmar in the lower of the two, the Challengers division.

Links to more information on Myanmar Cricket:

Myanmar's Only 1st Class Cricket game






*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.